A christmas smile box

Yesterday I received the information about the little 5 year old Noah who is coming to the end of a two year battle with cancer. Reference here: http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/medical/biorkman.asp. I am sure many of you received his requests for Christmas cards. Well I took his request home to Emily who was very affected by his illness. As usual she just looked at me with upset eyes and said "but why?". She then carefully decorated a smile box with tons of Christmas stickers, and we filled it full of Christmas items. In addition Emily wrote him out a letter, and referenced a picture on the back of her letter. When I flipped it over I found the picture I drew for her when I was on bed rest with Jude. I knew how much it meant to her to give up, so I just smiled at her. This is what she wrote on the front.

"Dear Noah

I want to tell you Happy Christmas. I'm Emily, you probably already know that from my handwriting, and misspelled words, but I wanted to write you a note saying well, Happy Christmas. I also wanted you to have this picture on the front, and the back. I sent you a smile box, and it has Christmas stuff in it, I hope you not only like it, but love it.

Love Emily"

Simple, and to the point. She never once mentioned him being sick, getting better, many prayers, etc. I asked her about this and she just responded "Why remind him that he is sick, he already knows". Kids are so smart sometimes.

Judes therapy went very well, but it was a massive slap in the face that Jude is VERY delayed. He still did well though, and I look forward to attending more sessions. We saw the speech therapist yesterday, and she worked with Jude on strengthening his muscles in his mouth. If she is able to strengthen these muscles more then he will be able to eat better. I never knew speech therapy was used for nutrition as well, but it is. I will take pictures at his next therapy session.